Kukla's Korner Hockey

Both sides in the NHL’s labor impasse are a little gun shy with new proposals.

You have to think that will soon change, but there have been no new proposals tabled by either the NHL or the NHL Players’ Association since their dueling, rejected offers on Sept. 12.

The NHL has been front and center in saying the process won’t progress until the players bring forward a new proposal.

The NHLPA in return feels like it’s been the only side willing to compromise at all in any of its previous offers.

My sense, in speaking to various sources over the past few days, is that both sides, to a degree, are a little trepid to drop the next new offer for fear that the other side will simply pocket whatever compromise is included in that new offer and then use it as part of a future offer.

There’s history here.

When the NHLPA dropped a bombshell offer in December 2004 to roll back salaries 24 percent, the league indeed pocketed that juicy baby in every single version of its future proposals, and, when the lockout ended in 2005, the 24 percent rollback was part of the new CBA.